Synergy (or "How I found a stain on my desk")

I came across a nifty lil utility the other day, and have become so happy with it that I had to share it with y'all, as some of you will end up finding this as indispensible as I have.

It's called Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/), and it allows you to share one keyboard and mouse across multiple systems. It's cross platform, so I currently have it set up at work with my eMac (Tiger), TiBook (Tiger), and WinXP. Here's how it works:

You configure the machine that actually has the keyboard and mouse as the server. On the server, you will configure (in my case) three screens by either host name or IP address. I configured emac.domain.com, tibook.domain.com, and winxp.domain.com. After setting up the screens, you then decide the orientation of the three screens. This will determine when the mouse will switch from one machine to another.

I set winxp.domain.com to the left of emac.domain.com, so when I move my mouse to the left side of the eMac's monitor, it suddenly appears on the right side of my WinXP monitor. At that moment, all keyboard and mouse control belongs to the WinXP box. When I move the mouse to the right of the WinXP screen, it appears on the left of the eMac screen. I also set tibook.domain.com to be up, or above, winxp.domain.com. This is because I have the laptop sitting on top of the 19" monitor that is attached to the WinXP box. When I move the mouse up, it appears to go through the top of the WinXP monitor, into the bottom of the TiBook screen.

For Windows, it's as easy as running an application. On Mac OS X, you have to start/stop it via command line. I took the time to create a boot script, so that Synergy now runs at boot (if you have questions about this, email me). This means that I can restart the TiBook and still be able to log in with the keyboard on the desk, instead of standing up to type on the laptop keyboard.

All in all, I recommend this groovy bit of work. I now have only one keyboard on my desk, and lots more room.

Oh yeah... when I got rid of the WinXP keyboard, I noticed that there was a coffee stain on my desk that had probably been there for about two years.

ew

__________________

When I see lightning, you know it always brings me down... because it's free, and it's me who's lost and never found.

Does that work will all versions of OS X and windoze? It sounds like a really good idea for my wallstreet and G5... But the WS has 10.3.9 and the G5 has 10.4.5. Does that matter? So you only need the IP address....hmmm....sounds like an interesting way to take over my sisters computer....

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